A Fiery Fiasco
by EowynAhsokaLover
Summary: Wally's and Artemis's first date does not go as planned. Somehow, they wind up saving people from a fire and fighting goons.


Title: A Fiery Fiasco

Rating: T (for cursing)

Characters: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Dick Grayson, Paula Crock, mentions of others

Summary: Artemis's and Wally's first date does not go entirely as planned.

A/N: Written for a prompt from Irenerb on tumblr. I hope you guys enjoy it. It has a pretty fluffy ending

* * *

She looked up building, wincing as she heard more of its wooden structure collapse. One of her companions (the mustard colored one; the idiot) asked who the perpetrator was.

Her other companion (her fellow Gothamite; the brainiac) answered, "It could be an unhappy citizen, turning to arson to show his dissatisfaction at the government, or-"

"It was probably Firefly," she said.

The other Gothamite nodded. "Quite a whacko."

Tying a wet handkerchief over her nose, she said "Boys, let's go get whoever's stuck in there."

That was easier said than done, considering the front door practically fell on them. Once they were inside, the dark-haired one coughed and said, "I'll take the second floor. Kid, you have the basement, and Arty," inwardly she groaned; he too had adopted West's annoying nickname for her, "you take this floor." They nodded. Robing swung upward and Kid dashed away, leaving her alone to dodge flaming timber.

She did not make a habit of taking on a firefighter's job. Especially on her valuable Friday nights, which she normally hoped to spend catching up after a busy week of school and missions. And miraculously, she was often able. But, of course, since two teenage superheroes going out on a date in their civies (their first date, she might add) was too tempting for fate to screw up their lives once again, here they were, rescuing civilians and (hopefully) catching a baddie. Just their everyday routine.

Though, maybe it was for their best. Her and Wally's date hadn't been going so smoothly. He was painfully awkward, and she...she hadn't been too much better.

For one, she hadn't even really wanted to go. When Wally had told her that he had reservations for one of Gotham's finest restaurants by way of asking her out, she had almost said no. She knew he was only trying to impress her, but she would have much preferred going to an arcade or a movie (like _The Hobbit;_ it had come out recently, hadn't it? She might have not been the biggest fantasy nerd, but Wally was. She would much prefer watching a parade of dwarven asses than a parade of people so rich they could have bought their asses.) Then she had to buy an appropriate outfit. Zee had helped her with this, which was nice since the League of Shadows didn't exactly provide Social Security for their old employees. Batman had not been happy with them pinching Dick's credit card, but somehow the Boy Wonder had managed to smooth things over for them.

And Artemis liked the dress, at the end of day. It was olive green satin supported by two thing straps. It had an empire waist, then fell down past her knees in a gored skirt, that allowed her the same amount of movement as pants. She liked the dress, but the minute she walked into _Le C__œ__ur Rouge_, she knew she didn't belong there. Wally, gulping, gave his name the host, who, after turning his nose up at the teenagers, led them to their table.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she nearly attacked the pile of rubble to her right when a hand emerged from it and grabbed her ankle. A rough, croaky voice came from under the rubble, which was fortunately, not on fire. Artemis started digging to reach the dying person.

"Artemis," Wally had said once their waiter had brought them their menu earlier that night, "Artemis, I can't read French."

She had resisted the urge to scowl. "You're taking Spanish in school?" He had nodded, refusing to look her in the eyes. "Well, its not my problem that you chose us to take us to a restaurant where you couldn't even speak the language."

"You do."

"You're right. _I _do." She had fallen silent as she had started looking over the menu. "I hope you're planning to pay. This place is way too expensive for my nonexistent paycheck."

"You don't get some sort of allowance?"

"Do you think I would live in a dingy Gotham apartment if my mother had enough money to give me allowance?" She had glanced at his reddening face before turning back to the menu. "Besides, I don't most teens would have a large enough allowance to pay for this place. How are you paying for it?"

"Um...well-"

He had been interrupted by the arrival of their waiter. "_Monsieur _and _Mademosielle, _may I take your order now?"

Artemis groaned as she threw the rescued man over her shoulder. He was heavy, probably double her own weight (she would the man to rescue; only West could rescue the damsel in distress). She started trudging back to what remained of the front of the building, imagining how singed she looked. "Are you okay?" she asked the civilian.

He groaned in response. Well at least he was alive and conscious. She had seen West carry someone out of the building is was probably neither, and if they were, their third degree burns ensured that they would not be so for long.

The front door had already been leveled by one of her friends so she had little trouble leaving the house. She dropped the man off with the other survivors. In the distance, she could hear the scream of rescue vehicles; medical help, at least, was on its way.

"Do any of you have any idea how many more people are left?" The group shook their heads and Artemis turned around to go back into the flaming building.

"We would like an order of _Saucisson en Crout _and two orders of _Coq au Vin. _As for dessert..._Glace au Pain d'Epices _will do nicely."Artemis had handed her and Wally's menu to the waiter as she had ordered

The waiter had replied, "A good choice, _Mademosielle. _It is in keeping with the season."

"_Oui,_" Wally had said. The waiter had glared at him, nodded at them both, then thad urned on his heel and left.

"I don't think he likes you very much."

"Well, _foux du fafa _to him."

She had stared at him. "You do know that '_foux du fafa' _doesn't mean in French, don't you?"

He had rubbed his neck, "Um, of course I did. Now what did you get us to eat."

"You'll have to wait to see."

"You didn't get salmon, did you? I hate salmon." Without giving her time to respond, he had drooped and covered his face in his hands. "I'm on my first date with a beautiful girl that is going horribly and now I'm going to have eat salmon! God, please help me!"

"Wally," she had begun, amused and touched. Many ideas of how to finish that sentence through her head. _Wally, don't be a drama queen here. Wally, how can you dislike a food when food eat food so fast? Wally, I never took you as a God-fearing citizen. Wally, I'm sorry I've been so antagonistic; you don't deserve it. Wally, stop being so adorable and-_

Then their conversation had been interrupted with a loud bang.

Artemis stood at the front of the building, ready to go back in when a loud noise signaled the collapse of the second story. Wally darted from the basement and to her side before the collapse had finished, crying out for Dick at the same as she. "Robin!"

After several calls and no replies, Wally turned to Artemis. "We'll have to go after him. Goodness knows where the blighter's trapped himself."

"At least we'll have the force's help," she said, referring to the fire truck which had driven up with an ambulance.

"There's no need for that guys," said a light voice, not yet hit by puberty, unlike Wally's. She and Wally turned to find Robin standing behind, grinning.

"You little shit. We were worried."

Robin bowed, then sobered. "The manager building told me we managed to get everyone out, though a few office pets weren't so fortunate."

"What do we do now?" Wally said.

"Well, since there's no sign of the perpetrator...you two could continue your date." He winked at them.

"Nah," Wally said, "I don't think either of us were enjoying it so much."

"Since we don't debrief, I know a nice place nearby that the three of us could go to. We'd just need to change into our civies first," Artemis said.

"And then, after that gang burst into the restaurant-"

"It wasn't really a gang," Artemis turned to Dick, explaining, "Small, made up of teens."

"-it wasn't a good gang, but they were all armed," Wally continued, "but after they burst into the room, Artemis stripped."

"You stripped?" Dick stared at her from across the booth's table.

"I did not strip, _Wally._ I went underneath the table and changed into my costume."

"Taking off your clothes sounds like stripping to me," Wally said.

She scowled. "The tablecloth was long enough for no one to see, except pervert," she gestured at Wally, who was sitting next to her, "who snuck a peek or two."

He shrugged. "Hey, I strip all the time. I'm just too fast for anyone to see."

"Did not need to know," Artemis said.

"Before you two get a room," Dick said, "what happened next?"

"After both of us had changed, I got out my collapsible crossbow and started playing Robin Hood, _Men in Tights_ style. West ran around and disarmed them before helping the civilians evacuate."

"Excuse me," the three heroes looked up to a server who had just cleared her throat. She was holding their food. "One club sandwich-"

"That's me!" Dick up his hand and she handed the food to him.

"Four hamburgers?"

"Guess who?" Artemis said. The server correctly put the plate in front of Wally.

"And today's special, grilled salmon." The server gave the food to Artemis, while Wally glared at Artemis.

Once the server left, Artemis continued her story, "There isn't much left. Wa;;y and I were waiting at that fancy for the cops to come arrest the thugs when we saw you swinging across roofs and decided to join you."

Dick leaned back, relaxed. "Sounds like your first date was a fiasco."

"To put it mildly," Artemis said.

"I hope it's okay." Turning to her, Wally said, "Because I'd like to go on another one—a better one, a place where I don't have to where a bow tie."

Artemis's breathe caught in her throat as his green eyes looked down at her (down! Just a few months ago, they had been the same height). "I..." it was her turn to blush and fumble with words, something that was usually Wally's job.

Across the table, Dick groaned. "I'm too young for this."

Artemis snorted. "I've seen you make googly eyes at Zatanna, Wonder Boy. And Bette, for that matter."

"Who's Bette?" Wally asked.

"A girl from school, from my grade actually, that Dick's been nursing a crush on."

"I thought we were talking about your love life, not mine," Dick said.

"He has a point," Wally said. "Arty, will you go on another date with me?"

"I..." she turned from him, "I suppose so. Just as long as-"

Wally whooped. She scowled. "Thanks babe. Now Rob, I'll have to leave you with the responsibility of getting her home because I'm fifteen minutes late for my curfew. Besides, I don't think I'm ready to meet Mama Crock yet." He stood up and ran away, before either of them had a chance to say anything.

"Babe?" she said incredulously, "he _will not _be calling _me _babe."

"You said he would not be calling you Arty, Arty."

She stuck out her tongue at Dick. He responded in kind.

Dick did walk her home, despite her insistence to the contrary ("I'm a superhero. I can defend myself"). Dick told her that as her friend, he was allowed to want to talk to her and allowed for her safety ("Besides," he had told her, "Your mother would probably furious if your date didn't take you home. I'll vanish before she sees me, so that she'll think it was Wally.")

As the two of them neared her apartment, she remarked, "He'll have to stop running away someday."

Dick nodded. "He will. But he has accomplished a lot recently."

"What has he done?"

"He's asked you out, twice now. I say it's about time."

"Oh, harhar," Artemis said, though a smile did cross her face.

Dick grinned. "I think we've reached your destination, Arty."

"Yeah. Thanks for the walk. Send my regards to Wally."

"And send his to your mother, fair goddess."

"You two are such morons." With that, Artemis disappeared into her apartment.

"Artemis." Artemis walked in to find her mother waiting for her in the living room. "I'm glad you're home. Kid Flash said you would be soon."

"Wally? He was here?" she asked, surprised.

Paula nodded. "He said someone else was walking you home. I thought it wasn't exactly traditional," Artemis inwardly groaned, "but after what he brought..."

"He brought something?"

Paula smiled and gestured toward a small, clear vase resting on the coffee table. Inside was a single yellow rose. "He is so cheesy." But nonetheless, she smiled.


End file.
